Storyboard:

Title:

1934 - Mao Zedong: The long March

Rights-Managed,
Editorial

Location and time:

China, 27-10-1934

Description:

The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Chinese Communist Army to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. The Communist Army of the Chinese Soviet Republic, led by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, was on the brink of complete annihilation by Chiang Kai-Sheks troops in Jiangxi Province in October 1934. The communists escaped in circling retreat to the north, which ultimately covered some 8,000 km (4,960 miles) over 370 days. The route branched through some of the most difficult terrain of western China and arrived 9,600 km (5,952 miles) west, then north, to Shaanxi. (In 2003, Ed Jocelyn and Andrew McEwen retraced the route in 384 days and estimated it was actually about 6,000 km (3,700 miles) long.

Sound Bite and conversation:

Fuming, Chong

(follower of Mao) , speaking Chinese: - "Of course, one could see how ill he had been, but nobody wanted to believe it. How could we even think that the man, who had led us for so long could die one day. Of course, it is a natural law, but still, who dares to think about it?
"

Yu-Chien, Kuan

(expert on China) , speaking German: - "Chinese had a big weakness. As soon as someone would rise in importance, the whole country admired him as a half-god. Later even Mao believed that he was one.
"

Renhui, Chong

(veteran of the long marsh) , speaking Chinese: - "The idea was good but they did it in a wrong way. That’s why a lot of his own people did not follow him. For that they were condemned as capitalists. Oh, in the whole country was a big chaos. Nothing moved. Everything was stagnating.
"

Jinti, Chen

(Mao’s photographer) , speaking Chinese: - "When I had to film Mao first, I could not sleep of the excitement the night before. I would see the man I had always loved, the biggest man of my heart.
"

Yu-Chien, Kuan

(expert on China) , speaking German: - "Those times, in 1957 only 5 million intellectuals lived in China. Mao condemned, about 500. 000 of them as illegal, anti-revolutionist. For example I was deported to Chinese-Siberia.
"

Mao Ce-tung

(The grand vizier) , speaking Chinese: - "WE made a huge and very important step, a step which none of our ancestors could do.
"

Yu-Chien, Kuan

(expert on China) , speaking German: - "He used to be a farmer as well. He spoke our language, knew our mentality, knew our character. He was very talented and moved the farmers very well.
"

Renhui, Chong

(veteran of the long marsh) , speaking Chinese: - "We were starving terribly on the steppes. We were eating wild plants, roots and grass. Some of them were poisonous – a lot of our fellow soldiers were poisoned.
"